Ethel W. Lee Lance, a 70-year-old Black woman, was a lifelong and dedicated member of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. A Charleston native, she had raised her family in the city and was a constant presence at the church, where she had worked as the sexton for the last five years, taking great pride in keeping the historic building clean.
Her life was deeply intertwined with the church; she was there nearly every day of the week for work, worship, or Bible study. A mother of five, grandmother of seven, and great-grandmother of four, she was the matriarch of her family, known for her loving nature and for firmly encouraging her grandchildren to succeed.
On the evening of June 17, 2015, Ethel Lance was attending a Wednesday night Bible study at the church she held so dear. A young white supremacist named Dylann Roof had been welcomed into the study group and sat with the parishioners for about an hour before opening fire. The attack was a racially motivated hate crime, targeting the African American churchgoers. Lance was one of nine people killed in the massacre. The devastating event cut short the life of a woman who was the heart of her family and a pillar of her church community.
In the aftermath of the horrific shooting, a manhunt for the gunman ensued. Dylann Roof was arrested the following day in North Carolina after being recognized from security camera images. He faced 33 federal hate crime charges and nine state counts of murder. During his federal trial, survivors gave chilling testimony of the events, and Roof confessed to the killings, expressing no remorse. In his jailhouse journal, he reaffirmed his racist motives.
At Roof's bond hearing, just two days after her mother's murder, one of Ethel Lance's daughters, Nadine Collier, offered him words of forgiveness, stating, 'You took something very precious from me, but I forgive you... May God forgive you.' Other family members, however, struggled with forgiveness, with her daughter Sharon Risher expressing her anger and opposition to the death penalty, stating it would not bring her mother back. Ultimately, Dylann Roof was found guilty on all federal charges and was sentenced to death. To avoid a second death sentence, he later pleaded guilty to the state murder charges and received nine consecutive life sentences.
